Labour MP Yvette Cooper has published details of a new plan to allow MPs to vote to block a no-deal Breixt. It is attracting wider Tory support than the previous version, which was voted down.
Photograph: HO/AFP/Getty Images

Corbyn accuses May of running down clock so MPs can be 'blackmailed into supporting flawed deal'

Jeremy Corbyn is responding.

He says he normally thanks May for an advance copy of his statement. But he only got it today as he was leaving his office, so he can only assume she got Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, to deliver it, he jokes.

He says May is running down the clock. She keeps putting off the vote on a deal. She has come back to the Commons today with more excuses and more delays.

He asks if May has presented ideas to the EU.

If such ideas exist, will she put them to the Commons?

He says May is trying to run down the clock, so that MPs can be blackmailed into voting for the deal.

In truth it appears the prime minister has just one real tactic: to run down the clock hoping members of this House are blackmailed into supporting a deeply flawed deal. This is an irresponsible act. She is playing for time and playing with people’s jobs, our economic security and the future of our industry.

The Nissan announcement about not producing a now model at Sunderland may be the thin end of a very long wedge.

He says he has heard that other firms are planning similar announcements.

Andrea Leadsom said today the meaningful vote may not take place until after 21 March. (See 9.47am.) If that is not the case, when will it take place?

He says May urged MPs to hold their nerve. But try telling that to Nissan workers, and other workers worried about their jobs.

He says, after receiving May’s reply to his letter, he is more convinced that May is only pretending to be interested in a cross-party solution to Brexit.

He says staying in the customs union is key. That is what business and unions want.

He says May’s deal does not offer the same benefits to CU membership. There would be barriers to trade under May’s plan, he says.

May says she is also looking at what can be done to ensure parliament is more involved in the next phase of the Brexit process, negotiating the future trade deal.

But, she says, she and Corbyn do not agree on his proposal for the UK to stay in the customs union.

She says parliament has already voted against this.

In any case, membership of the customs union would be a less desirable outcome than what is already in the political declaration. Being in the CU would mean the UK would not be able to strike its own trade deals.

May says this parliament has a proud record of going further than the EU on workers’ rights. For example, it is going to abolish the so-called Swedish derogation, which allows firms to pay agency workers less.